How do workstation graphics cards such as NVIDIA Quadro FX1100 with 128Mbytes compare with PC cards such as ATI Radeon 9600XT with 256Mbytes.
Web sites about gaming tell me about the 9600 and CAD sites advise on the Quadro.
I am interested in buying a workstation with the quadro card fitted as standard but I don’t do CAD. How will it perform with games such as Colin Macrae 2005

One is designed to handle 2d and 3d graphics equally well. The other is DirectX enhanced and accelerated. A Radeon 9600XT will not be as good at CAD as a Quadro or FireGL, nor would a Quadro or FireGL be good at Games like a Radeon or GeForce.

The reason for me wanting to upgrade is that the Radeon card seems to freeze fairly frequently when playing the on line game . Can you think of any reasons why I get a black screen for about 30 seconds. The sound seems to continue but does not respond to controls.
I couldnt get driver updates from the manufacturer so I got them from the Radeon site - is this appropriate?

Depends. Going to ATI is the best for the raw driver needed. IF you card is and ATI but produced by someone like Saphirre, you may need to get their driver due to possible changes int he Timings in the Cards BIOS.

As a rule, I go to the ATI site unless those drivers will not work. A black screen is a lack of information for the card to process or corrupt data. Do you play the online game with Dialup or broadband?

1 MBit BT Broadband.
The problem never seems to happen unless I'm playing on line when you get several ghost images of other cars in the same race.
The card is made by HIS Digital - their web site doesnt seem to let me download a driver update - even though it goes through the motions.The site site offers beta and official Radeon driver downloads - I have only tried the official one - it just doesnt seem to actualy update the driver
Prior to downloading the driver from ATI, the device manager showed the card as Radeon 9600. After the ATI download, it showed as a 9600XT and the driver level changed.
General PC spec is IBM Netvista, P4 2.6GHz, 512MBytes, 120GByte disc.
I keep it bang up to date with Bios and windows updates and run Norton antivirus and firewall and Microsoft's anti spy programme.

Sounds good with the ATI driver. Now, what may also slow you down is Norton. There have been several discussions on how much of a resource hog Norton has become. I used to use NAV, I have now switched to AVG due to the speed difference. It is very significant. The other is the Firewall. I dont know which flavor of Windows you have, if its XP or ME Or X, but if you have XP and updated to SP2, besure you turned off that firewall if you are using Nortons IS firewall. Another thought with the firewall is if you are using ZoneAlarm. As it has progressed it too has become somewhat of a resource hog. Sygate the the current recommended from those that know here at DAL. I am now testing with Sygate over ZA to see for myself if it will improve my systems performance. As for Anti-Spyware, you need multiple programs. No one program will do the job and I am not impressed with MS Spyware Beta1. I still use AdawareSE and Spybot with TeaTimer for protection on that front.

If you are still getting the black screens, first try turning off your AV for a game. Do not receive Email during that time. IF the game improves, its the AV causing a slowdown. The Firewall is different, I wouldnt turn that off just to test on an open link. I dont know what I would do to check that. I will have to think about that one.

Am using XP SP2. Norton AV and Norton Firewall with the Windows firewall off.
I use a Linksys router for the broadband which also has firewall activated so I guess I could turn the Norton softwaer firewall off.
I'll have a go sitching off AV.
I also use Spybot and AdAware - its a shame you have to run all three to catch the nasties.
Anthing else to try?
Would more RAM help?

More ram is always helpful. How much do you have? On both my Business and Personal machines I have 1gig.

If you have a Firewall on your router, then you can feel safe for a few minutes

I have no exerience with how much NIS Firewall eats up on the resources so you experience my help us all. Thank your for your time.

Andy